New course looks to diagnose, strengthen mindsets for student athletes
It’s no secret that the body is a reflection of the mind. Poor mental health deteriorates one’s concentration, work ethic, and energy level; all of which are significant in both learning and athletic settings. Athletes and students are always striving to perform at their best, as this fuels their family, community, and self with pride. However, is “best” even a possibility when the mind screams, “You aren’t good enough?” A new course at West, Mental Strength, strives to bring students to new heights as they are supported through their mental lows.
A common misconception is that student athletes are highly rewarded, with lives falling effortlessly into place. After all, student athletes have more social opportunities, and some earn scholarships for their performance. However, those offers and opportunities came through sacrifice and hard work. That combination leads to stress, which explains the need for the new course. Mental Strength teacher Jessie Hansen acknowledges that many students are still adjusting to the resumption of a busy life post pandemic.
“Especially with COVID, digital learning, and the change of the world, we’ve seen a lot of mental health struggles in students, and we went from complete shut down with very little expectations to immense expectations and pressures,” Hanson said. “So a lot of student athletes feel immense pressure that they have to perform perfect or up to society's expectations. Mental Strength is just to help student athletes with the mental health aspects.”
Perfectionism is only one example; there are countless obstacles athletes have to learn to overcome. Every mental health journey is unique and fluid, which is celebrated in the Mental Strength classroom.
“The kids will take a pretest to decide which areas they struggle with individually, and then I work with them one-on-one to address those deficiencies,” Hansen said. “Because every student is so different, some students struggle with confidence, whereas others struggle with ego, and so there’s not a one-size-fits-all program. It’s very individualized, and that’s what I love the most about it. I get to work individually with these kids to figure out what works best for them.”
The class itself is very similar to the Strength and Conditioning program. However, Hansen appreciates its differences and feels every student in Strength and Conditioning could benefit from the mental health aspect.
“Strength and Conditioning is working on building the students' speed and agility,” she said. “Mental Strength is included into Strength and Conditioning and is focused on building the mental resilience of the mind. Overall, your mind controls what you can and cannot do, so even if you have the physical attributes, or physical skills to do it, if you tell yourself you can’t and you don’t have mental resilience, then it’s going to withhold you from what you can accomplish physically.”
Senior Paige Seckar, a volleyball and basketball player, feels Mental Strength was offered at just the right time.
“I’ve always struggled as an athlete with my mental health, confidence in games, and just overall security in my play, so I think this class was offered just in time for my senior year,” she said. “I’m looking to play college basketball, so I think this is a really big step, and in order for me to take that next big step, I need to make sure that my mental strength is there.”
Seckar isn’t the only one who’s already reaping the benefits of Mental Strength. Senior and two-sport athlete, Brenna Gehri, loves the positivity the class brings to her day.
“In our first class, she gave us affirmation videos to watch, so I’ve been watching those and it’s definitely helped me to start my day off with something positive,” she said.
Gehri is a soccer and basketball player, who feels impacted by stress both on and off the field.
“There’s definitely a lot of school stress that can carry over into sports. If you’re stressed about one thing, it’s just on your mind for the whole practice or game,” she said.
An additional pressure is the weight of trying to reduce one’s psychological struggles all on their own. Men especially are prone to hiding every sign of weakness. Freshman basketball player Tyler Moderson experiences his own share of mental stress. He opened up about this when Hansen introduced Mental Strength to the eighth grade basketball club last year.
“If someone tells me I’m not good enough, it can set me back and I lack confidence,” Moderson said. “[Hansen] gave me lots of different ways to cope with all that and just block it out.”
Seckar, Gehri, and Moderson all agree that Mental Strength is worthwhile for any student athlete. Hansen sums it up by recommending the class to anyone looking to be held accountable and achieve their goals.
“[I recommend Mental Strength to] anyone who feels more pressured by performance rather than enjoyment,” she said. “Or anyone that has goals that they want to obtain, but don’t really know how to get there.”
Student athlete or not, it’s important for everyone to listen to their personal mental needs, and help each other out in moments of despair.
“In an ideal world, it would be nice to be able to incorporate these things [mental health support] throughout everyday life, not just within subject matter,” Hansen said. “Obviously it always comes down to time, and one thing I think our society and school structure [struggle with is] looking at things, at failures, as being bad. [In reality, when] you fail at something it should just be used as a stepping stone to figure out how to succeed. [If] we fail a math test, it doesn’t mean we’re bad at math, it just means we haven’t understood those concepts yet. I think that as a whole, as an educational society, we need to get to a point where we’re teaching that failure is not bad, but it’s just stepping stones to success.”
by Jazmine Blustin
Published October 2 2023
Oshkosh West Index Volume 120 Issue I